The Same Old Crowd

The coup was executed swiftly and bloodlessly. Special forces troops and a handful of tanks took up positions around the headquarters of the National Security Command in Bangkok, and Thais were told to listen for a special radio announcement. The news: Thailand's three-year-old constitution and the Parliament had been summarily abolished and replaced by a military-dominated junta headed by Premier Thanom Kittikachorn. Members of Parliament were allowed to collect $257.14 each in pay and allowances due them.

Summary Execution. For all the surface tranquillity, the coup imposed harsh military rule, complete with martial law, a provision for summary execution, and a prohibition of political gatherings of more than four persons. The new regime is virtually identical with the clique that controlled the former government. Besides amiable, soft-spoken Premier Thanom Kittikachorn, the junta includes tough, earthy Praphas Charusathien, who, as commander-in-chief of the Royal Thai Army, is the most powerful man in the country. Among the members of the Cabinet who are at least temporarily out of a job: Thanat Khoman, a brilliant but unpopular Foreign Minister who helped forge an alliance between the U.S. and Thailand and in recent months has urged a closer relationship with China.

There was no indication of a major switch in Thailand's close relationship with the U.S. But Premier Thanom did not telephone U.S. Ambassador Leonard Unger to explain the reasons for the coup until the announcement was already being broadcast to the nation. Only later that night did Thanom drop in at the royal palace to inform King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit.

An Inconvenience. Then why a coup at all? Thanom gave as a prime reason China's recent entry into the United Nations and the potential effect on Thailand's 3,000,000 Chinese--nearly 10% of the total population--though they had given no signs of restiveness. "We do not know for certain which ideology they prefer," he said. His real wrath, however, was directed at Parliament, some of whose members--from the gov ernment's own party--had threatened to block the military budget unless the Cabinet doubled their $50,000 annual allowances for vote-winning projects in their provinces. At a jammed press conference, Premier Thanom also complained bitterly that some opposition members had called him and Praphas "whoremasters" and "sons of bitches." The constitution was another inconvenience, Thanom said, hampering the government's campaign against Communist insurgents in the northeast. Complained Thanom: "I could not arrest them and shoot them as I did during the last coup d'etat,"" which established military rule from 1958 to 1968.

Last week's coup was staged as signs of trouble and unease were growing. The economy is declining as a result of lower U.S. military spending and aid and falling world prices for Thailand's chief exports: tin, rubber and rice. Crime is on the rise, including muggings and rapes. Bangkok has been the scene of a series of strikes, and only two weeks ago of a student riot, caused primarily by interschool rivalries, in which 158 youths were arrested. Rightly or wrongly, many Thais tended to blame the new institutions of democracy for preventing the government from cracking down on such disorders.

The troubles were caused primarily by the mediocrity and corruption of many individuals within the government, not of the new democratic institutions themselves. Indeed, Parliament had become an ebullient forum, given to calling Cabinet ministers to account before its committees. The judiciary had demonstrated considerable independence, and Bangkok's newspapers had become vigorous, if unreliable, critics of the government. Now the sudden change has brought about what one Western expert called "a revolution of falling expectations. Not only do they get a coup, which is against everything the Thais, or the best of them, have been working for, but they also get the same old crowd."

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